This invention relates to an environmentally friendly solvent for use in cleaning movie film, in particular, cellulose triacetate film.
Movie film is designed for repetitive use and, as such, must be durable and true to its original shape and size over a long period of time. Curling, cracking or peeling of the film is not tolerable.
In addition, the film must be kept clean from skin oils, dust and other matter which can be deposited during film processing and handling. It is generally necessary to clean movie film several times during its life. Cleaning is conveniently done by immersing the film in a solvent which is contemporaneously subjected to sonication. The solvent is contained in a tank and the film is fed through the tank via film guides. The film is dried as it is removed from the tank and is rewound. The solvent must be capable of cleaning the film without leaving a deposit on the film and without causing any distortion or damage to the film. Heretofore, a preferred solvent has been 1,1,1-trichloroethane. However, this solvent is no longer favored as it is to soon be banned world-wide for solvent applications due to environmental concerns.
Environmental concerns could be attenuated if an alkyl bromide solvent could be used instead of 1,1,1-trichloroethane. This would be especially so if n-propyl bromide could be the solvent as it has good cleaning characteristics, a low boiling point and is environmentally friendly, e.g. its Ozone Depletion Potential is low as compared to 1,1,1-trichloroethane. The low boiling point is advantageous as it insures that there will be no or very little solvent residue left on the cleaned film. n-Propyl bromide was tried on several types of film and was found to be suitable except for films based on cellulose triacetate polymer. For this last type of film, the n-propyl bromide caused unacceptable curling. Despite this fatal infirmity, the benefits of using n-propyl bromide made it well worthwhile to investigate the problem and to search for a solution which would yield an n-propyl bromide based solvent which did not cause film curl but which still retained the benefits of n-propyl bromide.